I would never suggest policing it or forcing it. But I would say that meat, dairy and grains have enormous lobbies that push in Washington for all things that benefit them. If you think we eat grain and meat-heavy diets today simply because that's what we've always wanted most, I would argue that they've been pushed on us by some powerful lobbies. And subsidized into cheapness.

Fortunately meat and grains are not 90% of the food diversity in the world. It just seems that way since 90% of our diets come from them.

But, back to the topic at hand, does anyone have good information on foods that truly rely on honeybees for pollination? Or even bees in general?

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The pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy. ---Emily Dickinson

"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may remember,involve me and I'll understand" Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Foods that don't need bee pollination are the main foods the world eats because they produce, are more easily planted, store easily, and grow under harder conditions.

There's a reason foods like this are considered sacred in some cultures. Rice, Wheat, Barley, and Maize have all been lifted to a "holy" status in different times, under different cultures, and even in ours.

"Bread." Made from wheat. It's used at communion to remind us of the sacrifice Jesus Christ made. Barley was the symbol of Demeter or Ceres, and where we get the word Cereal. Rice is the most widely grown crop in the world, and rice flour is used to bless with; though I can't think of an example, and Maize is the sacred food of Native Americans and has been for thousands of years.

Even the Lakota, who are hunter-gatherers traditionally, have maize as one of the four sacred foods. To make offerings with. Spring water, Dried meat (Preferably Buffalo), Dried berries (Preferably Chokecherries), and Corn (Maize)...

The simple truth is: If we tried to feed the world using nothing but the foods bees pollinate, we would starve.

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"Thinking is like sin, them that doesn't is scairt of it, and them that does gets to liking it so much they can't quit!" -Josh Billings.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may remember,involve me and I'll understand" Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

Pesticides are of course a problem; but it's too easy to say "neonics" every time any issue comes up with the bees; it's like announcing that every dead-out is "CCD" - in both cases it's some problem you personally cannot avoid, and therefore there's no reason to scrutinize your own beekeeping. I certainly applaud the efforts of those working on the Pesticide Problem, but what's going on with our bees is more complex than that any one thing and we owe it to our industry and our bees to explore every corner of what's going on. That means honestly identifying what problems are neonics, what problems are neonics-plus-x, and what problems aren't pesticide related at all.